Leonardo da Vinci

Publisher Description

The #1 New York Times bestseller from Walter Isaacson brings Leonardo da Vinci to life in this exciting new biography that is “a study in creativity: how to define it, how to achieve it…Most important, it is a powerful story of an exhilarating mind and life” (The New Yorker).

Based on thousands of pages from Leonardo da Vinci’s astonishing notebooks and new discoveries about his life and work, Walter Isaacson “deftly reveals an intimate Leonardo” (San Francisco Chronicle) in a narrative that connects his art to his science. He shows how Leonardo’s genius was based on skills we can improve in ourselves, such as passionate curiosity, careful observation, and an imagination so playful that it flirted with fantasy.

He produced the two most famous paintings in history, The Last Supper and the Mona Lisa. With a passion that sometimes became obsessive, he pursued innovative studies of anatomy, fossils, birds, the heart, flying machines, botany, geology, and weaponry. He explored the math of optics, showed how light rays strike the cornea, and produced illusions of changing perspectives in The Last Supper. His ability to stand at the crossroads of the humanities and the sciences, made iconic by his drawing of Vitruvian Man, made him history’s most creative genius.

In the “luminous” (Daily Beast) Leonardo da Vinci, Isaacson describes how Leonardo’s delight at combining diverse passions remains the ultimate recipe for creativity. So, too, does his ease at being a bit of a misfit: illegitimate, gay, vegetarian, left-handed, easily distracted, and at times heretical. His life should remind us of the importance to be imaginative and, like talented rebels in any era, to think different. Here, da Vinci “comes to life in all his remarkable brilliance and oddity in Walter Isaacson’s ambitious new biography…a vigorous, insightful portrait” (The Washington Post).

GENRE

Biographies & Memoirs

RELEASED

2017

October 17

LANGUAGE

EN

English

LENGTH

624

Pages

PUBLISHER

Simon & Schuster

SELLER

SIMON AND SCHUSTER DIGITAL SALES INC

SIZE

141.6

MB

Customer Reviews

Great Audiobook but wheres the PDF?

I love all of this author’s work and this publication is no exception. BUT I cannot figure out how to get the accompanying PDF which is very important for the particular book becuase they keep referring to it. Someone please tell me how to get it!!

usingfromjersey
, 11/10/2017

The book is a work of genius!

The book is an absolute work of genius in writing, style, depth, and scope. Leonardo Da Vinci is one of mankind’s most curious individuals and that curiosity manifested in the culmination of incredible works of both art and science. In fact, this book and the lessons of Leonardo could and probably should be considered required reading for anyone working in, or curious about art and or science. Walter Isaacson has given us a treasure that will surely be read for many years to come, for in this book are the secrets that Leonardo himself uncovered about our world and about ourselves!

Emmet Aloysius
, 05/14/2018

Disappointed

I thought this would be a great book but did not finish. As another reviewer said it reads like a textbook and a tedious one at that. Some of his artwork is fascinating but reading this book is not. I will try his Benjamin Franklin instead.EAF III